“Hoda Kotb and Ex Joel Schiffman’s Relationship Journey: From Romance to Broken Engagement and Co-Parenting Two Kids”
Hoda Kotb and Joel Schiffman have remained on good terms after their split.
The couple met and started dating in 2013. As their relationship progressed, the TV personality was often asked whether she wanted to walk down the aisle again. Kotb was previously married to Burzis Kanga from 2005 to 2008. After Kotb adopted daughter Haley in 2017, questions about her future with Schiffman continued. In January 2018, she told Ellen DeGeneres that they “might” tie the knot.“I feel like everything’s great. He’s Haley’s dad. I’m Haley’s mom. We’re together,” Kotb, who left the Today show after nearly 30 years at NBC in January 2025, said at the time. “I feel like there’s not a rush other than we’re old, and we probably — if we’re going to do it, we might as well do it. But I think it’s fun like this. I don’t mind it. … We’re enjoying our lives. Yeah, I think we’re good this way.”Their family grew again in April 2019 when she adopted daughter Hope. That November, he proposed. Less than three years later, however, she announced their breakup.
“Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and really meaningful conversations over the holidays, and we decided that we’re better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple,” she told Today viewers in January 2022. “So we decided that we are going to start this new year and begin it kind of on our new path as loving parents to our adorable, delightful children, and as friends.”
Scroll through for a timeline of their relationship:
Hoda Kotb and Joel Schiffman have remained on good terms after their split.
The couple met and started dating in 2013. As their relationship progressed, the TV personality was often asked whether she wanted to walk down the aisle again. Kotb was previously married to Burzis Kanga from 2005 to 2008. After Kotb adopted daughter Haley in 2017, questions about her future with Schiffman continued. In January 2018, she told Ellen DeGeneres that they “might” tie the knot.
“I feel like everything’s great. He’s Haley’s dad. I’m Haley’s mom. We’re together,” Kotb, who left the Today show after nearly 30 years at NBC in January 2025, said at the time. “I feel like there’s not a rush other than we’re old, and we probably — if we’re going to do it, we might as well do it. But I think it’s fun like this. I don’t mind it. … We’re enjoying our lives. Yeah, I think we’re good this way.”
“Joel and I have had a lot of prayerful and really meaningful conversations over the holidays, and we decided that we’re better as friends and parents than we are as an engaged couple,” she told Today viewers in January 2022. “So we decided that we are going to start this new year and begin it kind of on our new path as loving parents to our adorable, delightful children, and as friends.”
Scroll through for a timeline of their relationship:
2013
The pair met in New York City after she spoke at an event.
“I asked someone from the place — I asked, ‘Will you find out his situation?’ Because I didn’t know anything about him,” Kotb told Andy Cohen in 2015. “I knew he didn’t have a wedding ring, but that’s all I knew. Then she emailed him and he emailed me and asked me out on a date.”
2015
After quietly dating for two years, Kotb and Schiffman went public. “He’s a guy that gives me butterflies again at 50,” she told People at the time.
2016
The journalist revealed that they were living together.
“It’s a little weird to be in your 50s and we’re like, ‘Hey, we’re moving in!’ It’s like we’re kids. It’s so weird,” she said on The Hoda Show in 2016. “It’s been so long since I’ve lived with someone, I’m a little concerned with me — not him. Like, how I am, as a human? You know, it’s not going to be easy for poor Joel.”
2013
The pair met in New York City after she spoke at an event.
“I asked someone from the place — I asked, ‘Will you find out his situation?’ Because I didn’t know anything about him,” Kotb told Andy Cohen in 2015. “I knew he didn’t have a wedding ring, but that’s all I knew. Then she emailed him and he emailed me and asked me out on a date.”
2015
After quietly dating for two years, Kotb and Schiffman went public. “He’s a guy that gives me butterflies again at 50,” she told People at the time.
2019
The Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee author adopted daughter Hope Catherine Kotb in April.
“You think that you’re full … and Joel and I were standing there when they hand you the baby and it’s the closest thing you’ll get to a live birth,” she said on Today at the time. “It’s amazing. I can’t believe it’s happening!”
